The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs around the world is increasing on a daily basis, and it’s getting worse.
You can safely assume that if your website or blog hasn’t been hacked yet, then it’s inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 WordPress-powered web sites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are hacked every year! Could yours be next?
(Image: BlogDefender site)
According to the Cnet report,
“With some old-fashioned trickery, hackers were able to get more than 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered Web sites to mount a distributed-denial-of-service attack against another Web site.”
(Source: cnet.com/news/ddos-attack-is-launched-from-162000-wordpress-sites)
As reported by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyber-attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
You may think that the information in your website or blog is of little value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, every website provides an opportunity to gain some advantage at your expense.
If a hacker can exploit a way to remotely control your site, the website can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other valued web sites.
The harsh reality is that malicious bots are probably trying to break into your website as you are reading this article. Whether they can do this successfully or not, depends on how challenging you will make things for hackers and bots to keep trying until they can discover how to get in, or are forced to give up and go look for a less secure target.
How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your WordPress Site?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …
(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and information about your site setup …
(Hackertarget – website security scan results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to freely access all of this information, hackers can too.
(Product image source: BlogDefender.com)
Being able to see which version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed on your site, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories in your site can all be potentially valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about potentially exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your web site and make your site invisible to malicious users and bots.
Blog Defender
Product Description
The product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress-driven blog he set up for his mother had been hacked into and suspended. This blog was almost brand new and had literally nothing to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of this after being suspended by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place within the site, as well as the addition of a number of malicious files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Image source: BlogDefender website)
This example demonstrates that every website is valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where the security holes in your website are …
And let’s you fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …
WP Plugins
The product suite includes three plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender website)
Plugin #1 lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud-based storage solutions using different backup methods (e.g. FTP), schedule full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating sites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
The second plugin provides your website with security …
(Product image source: Blog Defender)
Plugin #2 “WP Security” performs a range of website protection functions (see “Plugin Features” section below).
The third plugin allows you to scan your WordPress web site to see whether anything in your files has been altered, and repair any problems it detects …
(Product image: BlogDefender site)
Pro Plugin # 3 also scans content to see if any malicious scripts have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your hard work without offering you any reciprocal value or benefit in return).
Videos
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes step-by-step videos plus training guides that teach you exactly how to protect your website from malicious attacks …
(Screenshot: BlogDefender website)
Learn more here:
Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
The plugins included in the Blog Defender product suite are really easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow training product that will walk you through the website security process and show you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which plugins you can install for free to get the job done without incurring unnecessary expenses.
Additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users whose aims is to exploit your site for personal and financial gain at your expense.
- Helps Prevent Intellectual Property Theft – If you sell a digital product (e.g. downloadable e-books, videos, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on free sharing sites.
- Avoid A Nightmare Situation – When a site is hacked, you can expect to go through a great deal of frustration and aggravation. It can take days to uncover the problem and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, website can be closed by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. In addition, your personal contacts can end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Plugin Features
Blog Defender offers a number of features to web site owners.
The product helps you fix all of the following areas:
- Hosting Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WP Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Monitor Links
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automate Core WP Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help protect your website, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky WP themes and plugins, and then implementing website-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Image source: Blog Defender)
User Feedback
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback that users have written about the Blog Defender security suite:
”Great way to secure your blog!” JohnThornhill – www.johnthornhill.com
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”In the past month alone, I’ve had 3 niche blogs hacked, costing me hundreds of dollars in lost sales – all of which could have been avoided if I followed the steps in this training. I can tell you, there’s nothing worse than spending months building up a blog, adding posts every few days, and then finding it all gone in an instant. The great thing about these ‘over the shoulder’ videos is that you get to see exactly how to do everything, so it doesn’t matter if you’re technically challenged. Just copy what you see on the screen, and then relax knowing your blogs are safe. (Just one of the tips in the first video alone could probably have prevented my blogs getting hacked) I even noticed one or two tips in there that help with SEO too … so following these videos could even bring your blogs more traffic!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, Matt Garrett, no sites using Blog Defender were hacked since Blog Defender was first released.
Matt also states on his site …
“With the volume of attacks nowadays … we probably won’t hold forever, so we’ve been busy creating even tougher WordPress security.”
The war on hackers is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and technologies that developers presently can harness. The latest release of Blog Defender creates an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, won’t cost you a fortune and it’s as good if not better than most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Support
The product is well-supported, can be used by both Mac and PC users, is compatible with the latest WordPress release and is backed by a risk-free, thirty day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
Blog Defender is normally available with a personal license only for use on unlimited sites. When we last checked, however, it was also being sold with Developer rights, allowing users to secure client sites as well.. Price = $47.00.
Note: The cost to purchase the Blog Defender product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was current when this review was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the product author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
Use These Plugins
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress software, WordPress plugins and themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.
Blog Defender helps you learn what your security responsibilities are as the website owner, what hosting companies can and can’t do to help prevent your sites being compromised, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the task of securing your WordPress website easier.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender Security Plugin
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